NOTITIA VENATICA. 17 



be ciu'uuraged in a pleasant way, and not driven and rated as if discord 

 was a necessary ingredient in the sport and music of a fine cry of 

 hounds. Wliippers-in are too apt to tliink their own importance and 

 consequence consists in shouting, hallooing, and unnecessary activity ; 

 Avhen hounds can hear the cry they get together sooner than any whip- 

 per-in can drive them. If any hound should he conceited and disinclined 

 to go to the cry, he should be immediately drafted. Shoidd there be 

 only one fox in cover, and two or three hounds get away with him Avhile 

 the body of the pack are hunting the line behind, some judicious sports- 

 man should ride to them, and view-halloo for the rest of the pack to 

 join them ; it is the most certain way to insure the run, and the hounds 

 Avill very speedily get together, if properly treated. If there are many 

 foxes in cover, and one should go away, and the hounds are running in 

 various parts, you may, if a favourable opportunity presents itself, try 

 to halloo the pack away ; but do not attempt it without such favourable 

 circumstances, as a good rummaging in cover will do the hounds ser- 

 vice. When a fox dwells in cover, and will not go away, the best plan 

 is to leave him and not kill him — another day he Avill perhaps afford a 

 good run. Blood was a thing Mr. Meynel was more incHfferent about 

 than most owners of hounds. The wildest packs of hounds were known 

 to kill the most foxes in cover, but vei-y seldom showed good runs over 

 an open country. Hounds chopping foxes in cover is more a vice than a 

 proof of their being' good cover hounds. Murdering foxes is a most ab- 

 surd prodigality. Seasoned foxes are as necessary to sport as experi- 

 enced hounds. To obtain a good run your hounds should not only have 

 good abilities, but they should be experienced and well acquainted with 

 each other ; to guide a scent well over a country for a length of time, 

 and through all the difficulties usually encountered, requires the best 

 and most experienced abilities ; a faulty hound or injudicious rider, by 

 one injudicious step, may defeat the most promising run. Gentlemen, 

 and every person who makes hunting his pursuit, should learn to ride 

 judiciously to hounds ; it is a contemplative amusement, and much good 

 diversion might be promoted by a few regular precautions. The prin- 

 cipal thing to attend to, is not to ride too near the hounds, and always 

 as much as possible to anticipate a check ; by which means the leading 

 men will pull their horses up in time, and afford the hounds a fair op- 

 portunity to keep the line of scent unbroken. Sheep, cattle, teams at 

 plough, and arable land are all causes of checks ; thoughtless sports- 

 men are apt to press too much on hounds, particularly down a road. 

 Every one should consider that every check operates against the 

 hounds, and that scent is of a fleeting nature, soon lost, never again 

 to be recovered. Mr. Meynel's hounds had more good runs than any 

 other pack of his day. Two very extraordinary ones hajipened of a 

 very rare description : one was a run of one hour and twenty minutes, 

 without a check, and they killed their fox ; the other was two hours 

 and fifty minutes, Avithout a cast, and killed. The hounds in the first run 

 kept well together, and only two horses performed it ; the rest of the field 

 Avere unequal to its fleetness. The other run alluded to was performed 

 by the whole of the pack, and, though all were up at the death, two or 



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